THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF WILKIE COLLINS: Enriched edition.

by Wilkie Collins

This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. His best-known works are The Woman in White, No Name, Armadale, and The Moonstone.
Table of Contents:
After The Dark
The Ostler
Mr. Wray's Cash Box
The Queen of Hearts
A House To Let
The Haunted House ("The Ghost in the Cupboard Room")
My Miscellanies
No Thoroughfare
Miss or Mrs?
"Blow up with the Brig!"
The Hidden Cash
The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
The Last Stage Coachman
The Fatal Cradle
The Frozen Deep and Other Stories
The Captain's Last Love
The Dead Hand
The Devil's Spectacles
The First Officer's Confession
Farmer Fairweather
Fatal Fortune
Fie! Fie! Or The Fair Physician
Love's Random Shot
The Midnight Mass
Nine O'Clock
A Passage in the Life of Mr. Perugino Potts
The Haunted Hotel
My Lady's Money
Who Killed Zebedee
Little Novels
The Poetry Did It
A Sad Death and A Brave Life
The Twin Sisters
Volpurno - Or The Student
John Steadiman's Account (The Wreck of The Golden Mary)
A Message from The Sea
The Seafaring Man
The Dead Alive

Genres: Short Stories

3543 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 21, 2015

About the author

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright, best known for The Woman in White (1860), an early sensation novel, and The Moonstone (1868), a pioneering work of detective fiction. Born to landscape painter William Collins and Harriet Geddes, he spent part of his childhood in Italy and France, learning both languages. Initially working as a tea merchant, he later studied law, though he never practiced. His literary career began with Antonina (1850), and a meeting with Charles Dickens in 1851 proved pivotal. The two became close friends and collaborators, with Collins contributing to Dickens' journals and co-writing dramatic works.
Collins' success peaked in the 1860s with novels that combined suspense with social critique, including No Name (1862), Armadale (1864), and The Moonstone, which established key elements of the modern detective story. His personal life was unconventional—he openly opposed marriage and lived with Caroline Graves and her daughter for much of his life, while also maintaining a separate relationship with Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.
Plagued by gout, Collins became addicted to laudanum, which affected both his health and later works. Despite declining quality in his writing, he remained a respected figure, mentoring younger authors and advocating for writers' rights. He died in 1889 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. His legacy endures through his influential novels, which laid the groundwork for both sensation fiction and detective literature.